1st and 2nd new deal
1st New Deal Purpose: Basically trying to fix the economy after the war. They did this by relief for the poor and unemployed, recovery of the economy, and reforming the economy so that there wouldn’t be another depression.
The 2nd New Deal Purpose was protecting workers and building long lasting financial security for Americans.
unions
The National Industrial Recovery Act (1933) promised workers the right to form unions and engage in collective bargaining.
A group of progressives went to congress and established the National Labor Relations Act in 1935 led by senator Robert F. Wagner. The news act had a National Labor Relations Board which enforced the bargaining between unions and the employers.
Goal and 3 R's
Goals: offer economic relief to the suffering, regulate private industry, and grow the economy
Relief (for the unemployed and poor)
Recovery (of the economy back to normal levels through federal spending and job creation)
Reform (of capitalism through regulatory legislation and the creation of new social welfare programs to prevent a repeat depression)
Bomb go boom
Trinity Bomb- The first atomic explosion in history occurred on July 16th, 1995 in the desert near Alamogordo, New Mexico
Atomic Warfare- President Harry S Truman offered Japan an ultimatum after receiving news of the successful development of the Trinity Bomb. He told Japan to surrender by August 3rd or face complete devastation. The Japanese premier wanted to accept the demands from the president but he was unable to persuade military leaders to agree. There were hints from Tokyo that Japan would surrender if it could retain its emperor but the American government firmly believed in “unconditional surrender” and dismissed those proposals. When the deadline passed, Truman ordered the Air Force to use the new atomic weapons against Japan.
Black Tuesday
In the Fall of 1929 the stock market began to collapse. There were major declines in the stocking market prices. On Black Tuesday, all efforts that previously worked to save these markets failed at once. 16 million stocks were traded, essentially dropping the industrial index about 43% and stocks were virtually worthless. Many believed this was the start of the Great Depression.
causes, more long term
Lack of diversification in industry, Declining exports, Unstable debt structure (with Europe payments from WWI), Unemployment
AAA and CCC
Agricultural Adjustment Act boosted agricultural prices by offering subsidies to farmers to reduce output
Civilian Conservation Corps employed young and single men at federally funded jobs on government lands.
Pearl Harbor
December 7, 1941: surprise aerial attack on the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor on Oahu Island, Hawaii, by the Japanese that precipitated the entry of the United States into World War II
Harlem Renaissance
intellectual and cultural revival of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s.
immediate causes
stock market rise, black Tuesday, banking collapse, debt
critics
Father Coughlin (fascist), Huey Long(gay socialist)
women
Many women replaced industrial workforce of men in military
forced to leave their young children at home alone or even in locked cars in factory parking lots
Lacking supervision, juvenile crime rose significantly (young boys committing burglary, vandalism and vagrancy and young girls being prostitutes)
Increase of marriages post-war lead to baby boom (ppl starting families and settling down after war outbreak)
problems w/ farming in the '20s
Mechanized farming increased agricultural productivity but demand was not rising as fast as production
This caused a substantial surplus, disastrous decline in food prices, and a severe drop in farmers’ income beginning in the early 1920s
challenges with unemployment
Challenge to traditional notions of masculinity bc most americans saw it as a signs of personal failure
State govt struggled to keep up with declining tax revenue so they couldn't assist the unemployed
court packing c&e
C: No program of reform could survive the conservative supreme court judges, and electoral realignment in FDR’s favor convinced him that it was possible to do something about it. FDR added six new judges to the court. He claimed they were overworked and needed fresh ideas to enable them to cope with their burdens. His purpose was to add liberal judges to change the ideological balance of the court.
E: Conservatives were outraged, and even his supporters were surprised with this “hunger for power”. The Court was no longer an obstacle to New Deal reforms, but it did lasting political damage to Roosevelt’s administration
Internment camps:
Stories circulated that Japanese Americans in Hawaii helped sabotage Pearl Harbor and fears spread that a similar conspiracy would happen with the Japanese Americans in California
Government took a “precaution” against these conspiracies and relocated more than 100,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps in western mountains & the desert where conditions were similar to a prison
allowed to return to west coast by 1945 but continued to face harassment and persecution with their homes and businesses lost
Religion vs. Science
Modernists vs. Traditionalist/Fundamentalists
The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) offered free counsel to educators willing to defy this law and become a defendant in a test case.
Journalists traveled from all over to cover the “monkey trial” which opened in a circus-like atmosphere and was broadcasted on radio.
This trial led to many fundamentalists' isolation and exclusion from mainstream media, ultimately putting an end to their political activism, though it did not change their religious convictions.
social/cultural changes
WPA and G-S Act
The Works Progress Administration was an American New Deal agency that employed millions of jobseekers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads
The Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 forced commercial banks to refrain from investment banking activities to protect depositors from potential losses through stock speculation.
Marshall Plan
The Marshall Plan was an American initiative enacted in 1948 to provide foreign aid to Western Europe. The United States transferred $13.3 billion in economic recovery programs to Western European economies after the end of World War II.